43 Protein-Packed Chicken Variations Every Fit Girl Will Love

Women's Health |
15 October 2009

SHARE THIS ON

Summer chicken caesar salad picnic table

Image from Freepik.com

A mega protein punch, 43 different ways…

Chomping on a skinless, boneless chicken breast gives you 23 muscle-building grams of protein for the bargain price of a single gram of saturated fat and 460kJ – and that brings you one step closer to tight abs and lean thighs.

Too bad this omnipresent piece of poultry is not that thrilling.

The solution: 43 fabulous makeovers for your average 115g chicken breast. Each one uses just a few easy ingredients that are probably in your kitchen already, and none take longer than 25 minutes. Try a few. The next time you say something tastes like chicken, it’ll be a compliment.

Wok This Way

The Basics: For a stir-fry, cut a raw chicken breast into bite-size pieces or thin strips. Cook it in a non-stick pan or wok over medium-high heat until browned (three to five minutes) and add one of the following groups of ingredients – in the order listed – and cook for five more minutes, stirring frequently.

Tip: Sesame oil gives stir-fries a distinct flavour. Nutritionally, it’s similar to olive oil because it’s full of heart-healthy unsaturated fats. (Make sure you get plain, not toasted, sesame oil.) But if you don’t have it, use canola or peanut oil, not olive, which goes up in smoke at high temperatures.

Get Baked

The Basics: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and douse your chicken in sauce, rub it with spices, crust it with goodies or stuff it with savouries. Bake uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes.

Sauces: Watery baths like salsa will do just fine in the oven. But thicker sauces must be mixed with water or stock or you’ll be left with sticky, blackened char. Use a small baking dish with raised sides to keep the meat swimming.

Stuffed: Pound the daylights out of your chicken breast with a meat tenderiser until it’s uniformly thin. Then arrange any of the following ingredients on the breast, roll it up and secure it with toothpicks or kitchen twine.